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Early Report on Our 2021 Total Solar Eclipse Expeditions

Presentation #303.07 in the session Solar and Atmospheric Science with Eclipses.

Published onOct 20, 2022
Early Report on Our 2021 Total Solar Eclipse Expeditions

We report on our observations from a chartered airplane near Antarctica and from the Antarctic continent of the 4 December 2021 total solar eclipse. We first provided composite imaging for comparison with the release in the days before totality of the Predictive Science Inc. group. The comparison appeared in a NASA Goddard release a few days after the event, with a slider between the prediction and the actual image, with satisfactory agreement in the configuration of streamers, noting that some of the magnetic field measurements from SDO were already out of date because of the solar rotation at the time of the PSI final prediction. From the chartered LATAM Boeing 787 Dreamliner at an altitude of 41,000 feet, we provided telephoto imaging and slitless spectroscopy. Colleagues at two sites on Union Glacier on the Antarctic continent also provided imaging for the purposes of compositing.

JMP’s current eclipse-related research is sponsored by grant AGS-1903500 of the Solar Terrestrial Program of the NSF’s Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division. Williams College including its Freeman Foote Expeditionary Fund provided additional student support. The airplane path was calculated and plotted by Glenn Schneider, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona. We thank Tim Todd of TEI tours and Travel for the LATAM arrangements, assisted by Mark Sood of A Classic Tours Collection, with on-site assistance from John Beattie.

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